P16.D4 – Kühe in 1/2 Trauer [USED LP]

still-baffling collage moves on this monolithic 1984 recording from p16.d4, 'kühe in 1/2 trauer'. a truly unsettling listen decades after the fact in its own truly addictive, head-obliterating style.

p16.d4 were a strange proposition, beginning as a new wave band then abruptly u-turning into feral yet considered decomposition. by the time of this lp, their first vinyl outing after a couple of tapes (also on the venerable selektion imprint), the group had basically morphed into a junk-concrète unit, taking sounds which even on their own would be mind-boggling -- crying babies, detuned pianos, garbled metal riffage -- and weaving them into deranged sound collage. the approach is all very dada, especially with its gleeful disdain for anything resembling logic & the predilection for absurdist juxtaposition, backed by an oppressive '80s germanic intensity which gives it its own enduring flavour. where many of their contemporaries used the latter characteristic as a crutch, couching their music in 'darkness' & 'art' (bleh), there are no concessions here whatsoever. theirs is a hyperspecific approach that doesn't have many contemporaries (although those of close affiliates s.b.o.t.h.i., merzbow, nurse with wound etc. help illuminate the dim picture somewhat), applying a deft ear for the artistry of sound assemblage in much the same way that the grm folk did but sounding the gutters instead, mangling tapes of misaligned detritus & stitching them into figures that remain wholly alien still.

confounding, blackly funny & profoundly intelligent stuff. total masterpiece for the phreaks.

Selektion, 1984